Brisbane apartment development sites on track to break $1.1b mark

A $445 million surge in foreign investment in Brisbane's inner-city development sites will produce at least 5300 new apartments for the city, more than three times the 10-year average sales rate.

The value of development site sales in inner Brisbane jumped 87 per cent in 2014 to $1.1 billion according to Colliers International's latest market analysis. More than 20 per cent of these were foreign buyers.

"Initial figures from the first half of 2015 show the strong conditions will continue, with Colliers tracking 43 sales so far this year worth $556 million," Colliers International's associate director for residential Brendan Hogan said.

Brisbane is about to get three times as many apartments as have sold on average per year for the last 10 years. Louise Kennerley

"We are also seeing about the same level of foreign buyers in the market as last year. They are still very active and are starting to see the value gap between Brisbane and Sydney, Melbourne."

R & F Properties, Shayher Group, Aspial Corporation, Wee Hur Holdings, Roxy Pacific, Fosun, Banyan Tree and Golden Horse purchased a collective $445 million worth of development sites in Brisbane in 2014. R &F Properties has 1804 apartments planned for its sites while Wee Hur has a concept plan for 1400. These are but a few of the conservative estimates of new apartments that are expected to come to the market in Brisbane.

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Colliers director for residential Andrew Roubicek said some caution needed to be applied but that developers should keep in mind that many of these mooted apartment projects will be multistaged and that some may not even happen.

"Many of these projects will take several years to happen. But if people think they are going to sell 600 apartments at $9000 per square metre they will have to take a reality check. There needs to be commonsense."

"About 70 per cent of the potential future supply is in the north and south of Brisbane, but that should not prevent you from going into those markets if you have a good project."

Colliers is expecting further site sales in the second half of this year, with some big-ticket properties likely to sell. They include Queensland Investment Corporations' Turbot Street site, Parmalat's riverfront factory site and concrete company Hanson's site, which sits inside the controversial Kurilpa Riverfront plan where development sizes are being reviewed.

Colliers have also brought to market developer Urban Construct's Newstead site, which has approval for 350 apartments. The site could sell for more than $20 million.